High Quality Glider Pilots - Tailored Pilots

[Tailored Pilots]

Progress is a little slower than expected at the moment, both myself and Symon have a backlog of orders to clear from Xmas first unfortunately.

The heads and hands are done so it's on to the body next then clothing.

[Tailored Pilots]

Peter Goldsmith has sent me some pictures of his finished model complete with pilot, I think he's happy, I know I am.

[Jolly Roger]

Wilson,

I am staggered by the quality of your products, especially the exceptional finish of the face and hands. It's so realistic I can't imagine how they can be created without a huge amount of highly-skilled, painstaking effort. I assume that the budget range will require finish-painting by the customer?

Rog

[Tailored Pilots]

Hi Rog,

Thanks for you kind words, it has taken a lot of experimentation and development to get to our latest production pilots, it's a constantly evolving product with new parts coming out every year. You mentioned the painted finish, this is because we now have all of our heads and hands produced by a specialist with years of experience in the doll and collectible figure market. It's expensive but I hope worth it.

The budget pilot kits will be available with a choice of 3 head and hand types dependent on your pocket.

The cheapest version will be unpainted 3D printed head and hands, these will be better than many available but will obviously have the fine lines associated with this process.

The middle range option will be hollow cast heads and hands from our older figures, these again will be unpainted. These will have the advantage of a smooth finish that are virtually paint ready.

The last and most expensive option will be unpainted hollow cast heads and hands from our current range, smooth with all the detail for you to paint yourself. These will have a lot more realistic details that the middle option.

We need to maintain a clear difference between our budget and regular range of figures. We can of course mix and match parts for you with the added expense of the higher quality items, though it gets to a stage where the price difference makes the best option budget pilot non viable! The whole point was to offer a good product at a bargain price after all!

I will try to get some pictures uploaded soon. Unfortunately both myself and Symon are snowed under with orders at the moment, so there's a short delay before we can get onto the new range at last.

Thanks,
Wilson.

[Jolly Roger]

Thanks for explaining your approach to the budget items Wilson.

To be honest I'm usually disappointed by the stepped effect of 3D printing. It reminds me of the early dot-matrix ink printers in the 1980s! At 40%+ scales, the items are probably large enough to smooth off these steps with filler/sandpaper or carefully applied acetone, but this may be too fiddly for smaller items.

The mid-range option looks most promising for me as I'm happy to do a little surface-finishing work + painting.

Thanks again for responding to customer requests.

[Tailored Pilots]

The last two posts outline the need for a choice of finish, some people are fine with the finish of 3D prints while others prefer a smoother look.

The budget option doesn't always tick peoples boxes, much the same as the more expensive version, hence the need for a range of finishes.

[Tailored Pilots]

The different head options are now ready, the next step is to get the body kits produced. I will aim to take a picture of the available heads tomorrow all being well.

[Tailored Pilots]

I was really hoping to get the different head styles posted today for the new budget range, unfortunately we've ran out of time, so it will have to be tomorrow now instead!

[VinceC]

"Off with his head"

[Tailored Pilots]

Here's a quick summary of available head types, I will expand it tomorrow with a full explanation of each type and process. I was really hoping to have everything done for today but as per usual we're juggling messages, forums and work at the same time!